Jihadists infiltrate Syria

A report in Kuwait confirms the Syrian regime's claims about the participation of Arab mercenaries in the violence that reverberates Syria for months.

A report in Kuwait confirms the Syrian regime's claims about the participation of Arab mercenaries in the violence that reverberates Syria for months.

Scores of Kuwaitis fighting alongside the Free Syrian Army (FSA) against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad after entering from Turkey, reported yesterday the Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas, citing relatives of these fighters.

"Tens of Kuwaitis entered Syria through the border with Turkey to fight alongside the FSA against the forces of the Syrian regime," wrote Al-Qabas. Relatives of these volunteers also told the daily that large groups of fighters from Saudi Arabia, Libya and Pakistan were also in Syria.

Members of the FSA meet volunteers at the border, provide them with weapons and assign it to combat Syrian army units. The FSA also provides these foreign fighters with Syrian identity cards to use them when arrested, according to relatives quoted by Al-Qabas.

On Thursday, a Saudi cleric issued a fatwa banning Saudis to fight in Syria without government approval, as calls for jihad against the regime in Damascus are voiced on social media networks. "It is unlawful to exceed the authority of the king and calling for jihad in a way that embarrasses the state," said Sheikh Ali al-Hakami, member of the Council of Senior Saudi Ulema, according to Saudi press.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Syrian rebels are holed up in the region Heffa, located in the province of Latakia (northwest), a province traditionally supporting the Damascus regime, according to Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR). This city and surrounding villages were bombed by the army yesterday for the sixth consecutive day, the source said, and additional troops arrived on site.

Nearly 60 soldiers have died since June 5 in the fighting against insurgents in this town about fifty miles from the Turkish border. At least 46 civilians and rebels were killed also. Heffa is an area mainly populated by Sunnis in the middle of an Alawite majority province. With violence Heffa "the coast is no longer a safe area and in the country and is now involved in the revolt," the source said.